New Life
by iluv2h8u1
Summary: When she's forced to live a new life, Emily has to find something or someone to help her through the twists and turns of Degrassi Community School.
1. Chapter 1

(Emily's POV)

Some people might call me crazy. I'm not. At least, I don't think so. I might be angry at the world and angry at all of humanity, but that doesn't make me crazy, does it? Wait, that wasn't even on topic. That had nothing to do with what I'm trying to tell you. I'm sorry about that, but it happens sometimes.

Anyway, my name is Emily Gold. I recently moved to Toronto, Canada, and am starting my sophomore year at Degrassi Community School tomorrow. I'm really nervous about it. I've actually never gone to a real school. Honestly, I've always been homeschooled. My parents were adventurers. They'd take me along on their trips, because "travel is good for children". If it were up to me, I never would've stopped traveling. But, of course, my grandparents just _had _to get involved, didn't they? My grandmother was worried about me not having a regular high school experience. You know, never having a boyfriend, not going to prom, no real classes, no friends, no teachers.

After about a year of my grandmother nagging my parents, they'd gotten fed up with her nagging and made me pack up my stuff. And then they'd shipped me off to "my home", which is ironic, because I'd never lived there, and I wasn't even born there. I was born in a helicopter somewhere over Hawaii. I still don't understand why my mom would get into a helicopter eight and a half months pregnant, but whatever.

I just arrived at this small cape house that I'm expected to live in for the rest of my high school career. I feel suffocated. I'd never really had walls surround me before. Even though the neighborhood is supposed to be one of the smallest in Toronto, I feel crowded. Where I'd been living had been so open, so free, and now I'm stuck in basically a jail cell. I feel like I've been condemned to a prison.

Well, I guess it isn't all bad. I have tried some foods I'd never even heard of before. Like French fries and cookies. Yeah, those are apparently huge in the United States and Canada.

Just another reason why I won't fit in at my new school. I guess I'm used to being a loner. I mean, for most of my life, it was just me and my parents.

"Emily!" my grandmother called up the steps. I closed my eyes for a few seconds before standing up and walking out of my bedroom to walk down the stairs.

I honestly hate stairs. They make me feel like I'm suffocating. They're just so narrow. But, anyway, moving on from my weirdness, I walked into the living room to see my grandmother standing with a middle-aged brown haired woman and a girl who seemed around my age. My grandmother, Nonna, walked over to me, put her arm around my shoulders for only a second, and then remembered my "no physical contact" rule.

"What did you want me for, Nonna?" I asked.

"Nipote, meet Clare. She's in your grade, and lives right next door," Nonna said, motioning to the girl. I took a closer look at her. She was pretty, but not in a "smack you over the head" way.

"Piacere di conoscerti," I said without thinking. I realized my mistake almost as soon as the words left my mouth.

I was raised in an Italian-speaking family, and we mostly spoke Italian at home. Sometimes I absentmindedly speak in Italian instead of English. I immediately repeated my sentence: "Nice to meet you."

(Clare's POV)

This girl…she was hard to describe. She had a deep tan and dirty blonde hair. She looked like one of those California beach bunnies or something. And then she'd started talking in another language to me. I immediately knew she was weird. I didn't know what language she was speaking. At all.

"So, what languages do you speak?" I asked her as we sat on her grandparents' front porch, trying to become friends.

"Do you have seven hours?" she asked.

I laughed. She looked at me curiously. "I'm serious. It would take me a long time to list all the languages I speak."

"I have time," I replied. She sighed, shrugged, and adjusted her position on the railing.

"Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Yiddish, Gaelic, Irish, Arabic, Korean, Dutch, Czech, Greek, Turkish, Hindi, Swahili, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, and Indonesian," she said, counting on her fingers. "And a ton others. Those are my most fluent languages."

"Wow, you must've studied for a long time," I noted.

"Well, if you don't know a country's main language, you're screwed," she replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"My parents are adventurers. They used to take me on their adventures all over the world. Until now, at least. Nonna kept annoying them about me not having a normal high school experience, so they shipped me here and I'm spending the rest of my high school years here," Emily explained.

"That's amazing," I responded. She'd been all over the world? That was something I'd always dreamed of doing, but that dream would probably never become reality.

"I guess," she said. "I mean, when you're used to it, it's not that amazing. But, if you're not used to it and haven't done it, it's amazing."

"So an average teen's life could be amazing to you?" I asked her.

"I suppose," she replied, looking at the burger on her plate.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said, shaking her head and turning to me. "I'm a vegan."

We talked for a while. Emily wasn't that weird, just not used to any of the stuff I was.

Which meant she'd have trouble fitting in at school. Well, now Mark and Owen have someone new to make fun of.


	2. Chapter 2

(Emily's POV)

I stepped quietly inside of my new school. I could feel all eyes on me as I quietly walked towards the principal's office.

I don't mind attention much, but when I'm somewhere new, I'm kind of quiet for a while. It's just this thing I do. I'm not a very social person until I'm comfortable in my new environment.

"Emily!" I heard a voice call. I turned around to see that Clare chick rushing up to me. I absentmindedly greeted her in Italian, but repeated my greeting.

"School doesn't start for a while, so I want you to meet my friend Adam," she replied. I blinked in shock, but followed her out into the courtyard anyway. A cute, girlish looking boy was sitting nervously at the table, looking around him, like he was scared someone was going to pick on him.

"Hey, Adam," Clare said, sitting down at the table. The boy nodded in greeting before looking at me curiously. I felt awkward for a second, but I recovered and introduced myself.

"I'm Emily," I said, shaking his hand. He smiled back.

"Clare already said my name, but I'm Adam. You're new here, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, just moved here from Australia," I responded. "One of my favorite places in the world. Been everywhere, lived everywhere, done everything."

Adam looked at me curiously. He seemed to be studying me. I wasn't pretty, at least I didn't think I was. I had green eyes, which I thought were the best thing about my appearance. You know how in the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling describes Harry's eyes? Bright, emerald green? That's what my eyes were like, an emerald.

"Why are you staring at me?" I asked him.

"Oh, nothing…it's just, you're pretty," he muttered. I blushed slightly. He looked away from me as Clare waved to someone.

A beautiful Indian girl rushed over, squealing. "Oh my god, Clare! You'll never believe what just—hey, who's she?" she asked, noticing me.

"Emily, Emily Gold. I moved here a few days ago," I responded.

"She's my neighbor," Clare added.

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Alli," she said, shaking my hand. I smiled. Maybe I wasn't so bad at meeting new people. Alli looked at me confusedly. "You have a weird accent. Where are you from?"

"Well, nowhere, really," I replied. "I guess you could say Hawaii, since I was born about five thousand feet above it."

The other three stared at me. I blushed slightly. I looked down at my bag as two people walked up to me. I fell silent. They were muscular, probably football players. I looked at Clare, who looked back at me, almost apologetically.

"What're you supposed to be?" one of them asked.

"A human being," I replied tersely. "And I expect to be treated like one, even if I am the new kid."

Neither of the boys knew how to respond to that, so they turned on Adam. I watched as no one stood up for him. They'd called her a girl. I mean, sure, he did have girly features, but that didn't make him a girl, did it? He seemed like a nice enough guy.

Apparently, all of my classes were with at least one of them. It made the day a bit easier, I guess. But it was still awkward, you know, with all of the students who'd been coming here for years staring at me. I smiled and put my best foot forward. Might as well, right? I was going to be stuck here for the next few years, wasn't I?

I was walking down the hallway, books clutched tightly in my arms, when I accidentally bumped into a boy. He had curly black hair, pale, freckly skin, and thick black nerd glasses. I accidentally dropped my books and kneeled down to collect them. The boy kneeled down to help me. I smiled at him as we stood up and he handed me my stuff.

"Um…here's your stuff," he said, turning red and looking away from me.

"Thanks," I replied, taking my books. I looked at him once more before saying goodbye to him and walking away, to the cafeteria, like I'd planned. I spotted Alli and some blonde chick standing in the lunch line, last in line. I walked over to her and smiled slightly.

"Oh, hey, Emily," Alli greeted. "This is Jenna. Jenna, this is Emily."

"Nice to meet you," I said, shaking her hand. We talked for a few minutes before Alli suddenly fell silent and glared at a boy walking by. He was tall, pretty handsome, and was walking with a tan girl. I could tell by looking at them that she was a dancer and he was a football player. The boy glanced over at Alli before the girl he was walking with tugged her away.

I looked at them curiously. "I feel like I'm missing something," I stated, making Alli smile and Jenna laugh.

We bought our lunches and they led me to a table. After we sat down, I asked about the boy. Alli sighed and started explaining. The boy was Drew Torres, Adam's stepbrother, and he'd once dated Alli. But Drew had been stupid and went behind Alli's back. He'd cheated on her with the girl, Bianca de Susa, and now they weren't on speaking terms.

"And you're still in love with him, aren't you?" I asked. Alli looked at me in shock.

"What? What makes you think that?" Alli asked.

I shrugged. "Dunno, really. I guess I'm just imagining it."

**Sorry for the shortness. But I kind of have no other ideas as to what to do for this chapter, so if you have any suggestions, could you tell me?**

**By the way, Australia is on the list of places I want to go. It seems so wonderful there. :)**


End file.
